energy savings at home

Improving your home's energy efficiency with ENERGY STAR can help to lower high energy bills, improve comfort and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Learn about the many ways to save in your home and track your progress with "My ENERGY STAR" - your new dashboard to savings.

new homes & apartments

A new home or apartment that has earned the ENERGY STAR label has undergone a process of inspections, testing, and verification to meet strict requirements set by the US EPA. ENERGY STAR certified homes and apartments use significantly less energy than typical new homes and apartments while delivering better comfort, quality, and durability.

Top 10 Computer Power Management Myths...and Realities

Myth #1: You save more money if you simply require people to turn off their computers each night.Learn the reality.

Reality: You only save a watt or two by turning off a computer vs. placing it in sleep mode. Forgetting to shut down your computer just a handful of times will negate an entire year's worth of incremental energy savings. Surveys and interviews with IT managers consistently conclude that policies "requiring" users to turn off their PCs at night result in only about 70–90% compliance.

Myth #2: Sleep features can wear out hardware by forcing the computer to turn on and off several times a day.Learn the reality.

Reality: Modern computers are designed to handle 40,000 on-off cycles before failure, and you're unlikely to approach that number, even if you keep your computer 5–7 years. Some studies indicate it would require on-off cycling every five minutes to harm a hard drive.

Myth #8: Sleeping computers will not receive important software updates such as new antivirus definitions and Windows security patches.Learn the reality.

Reality: Partially true! This can be an initial barrier but there are numerous ways to ensure that software updates are applied, including waking up computers through the network prior to distributing updates. ENERGY STAR can help identify the best solution for your IT environment.

Myth #9: Because Microsoft ships Windows software with computer power management settings enabled, there is no need to worry about sleep settings on Windows machines.Learn the reality.

Reality: While Microsoft does ship Windows with sleep settings enabled, operating systems are usually installed by PC makers, enterprise IT departments, computer resellers, or 3rd party service providers. Windows default power management settings are not typically retained by these parties.

Myth #10: My network administrator says our PCs are "enabled for hibernate," so we must already be taking advantage of computer power management features.Learn the reality.

Reality: For the hibernate feature to be available, it is sometimes necessary to enable it in Windows. This does not mean that PCs are configured to automatically enter hibernate after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity.

TIP: To avoid potential confusion, ask if PCs are "configured to automatically enter system standby or hibernate after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity."